First Aid and a Getaway
by goji1995
Summary: After the Pines twins survive a narrow scrape with the supernatural, Mabel is injured and Dipper takes it upon himself to patch her up.


**A/N: This is part of a future I like to picture for the twins, in which the two of them travel the world and go on globetrotting adventures together. It's not really an AU so much as it is a hypothetical future, but I'll call it the Drifters AU for convenience sake. Hope you enjoy this little one-shot :)**

FIRST AID AND A GETAWAY

Dipper leaned back in his chair, soaking up the sunlight. Sitting outside of his and Mabel's RV, he stared out at the beautiful landscape of the Alpujarra mountains in Andalucia, Spain. It was a simple landscape, rugged and covered in yellowed, hardy plants, yet it was beautiful and serene. Dipper sighed contentedly as he took a sip from his icy bottle of peach juice, thinking about how there was nowhere in the world he would rather be right now. Currently he was enjoying a little alone time as Mabel had taken off to do a little exploring and photography on her own.

"DIIIIIIPPPPPPPEEEEERRRRR!" came her voice suddenly, not too far away, sounding urgent, panicked, and, of course, excited. Dipper sometimes wondered if it was weird how much of a thrill they got out of being in danger. Perhaps they had simply been in peril so often from such a young age that they had become desensitized to it. Either way, right now his sister was calling his name, and something dangerous was coming.

"Mabel?! What's going on?" he called back.

He saw her come into sight at the bottom of the hill.

"Get the RV running!" she yelled.

Dipper didn't stop to question her. Immediately he grabbed the folding chair he had been sitting on and ran inside, dumping the chair and jumping into the driver's seat. He jammed the keys in and turned them, the engine rumbling to life. A few moments later, Mabel dived into the vehicle, slammed the door and threw herself into the passenger seat.

"GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO!" she urged.

Dipper went. He slammed his foot down on the acceleration and swerved them out onto the road.

"Okay, so, mind if I ask what we're actually running from?!" Dipper asked.

Suddenly something gigantic and hulking landed on the road in front of them. Dipper breaked as hard as he could, and they stopped a few metres short of the beast. Taking it in, he saw that it was a silvery, half gorilla, half moth monster, its hideous insectoid features staring hungrily at them.

"That", Mabel said.

The monster reared up on its hind legs, and just as it was about to bring its powerful fists down onto the vehicle's engine, Dipper reversed, and the creature's attack hit the road, shattering it. Swerving around, he began to charge in the opposite direction. The beast took to the air once again, following them closely.

"Okay, so... what the heck?!" Dipper said, his eyes bulging.

"Okay, so, you know Mothman?" Mabel asked.

"Yeah?"

"I think I ran into his cousin Mothrilla".

"How?!"

"I don't know, I was looking in this weird cave next to an abandoned hut, and he was just there, staring at me. So I hightailed it outta there, and now here we are".

Their conversation was rudely interrupted as the Mothrilla's claws raked the top of the RV, the monster letting loose a fearsome howl. Mabel jammed a button on the vehicle's dashboard, sending out a powerful blast of electricity out from the roof. The Mothrilla shrieked in pain and flew back a little ways to a safer distance, still relentlessly hounding them.

"We have the worst luck in the world, don't we?" Dipper said, grinning, as he swerved around a tight corner, narrowly avoiding crashing through the fence and down a steep hill.

"Yuh huh. I never thought we'd run into cryptids out in the middle of Spain", Mabel said. "Let alone that thing".

"Yeah, me either. I mean I thought maybe we'd run into a ghost or two, but Mothman's bigger, uglier cousin?"

The creature suddenly appeared at their side, staring in at them through the passenger window as it flew alongside them.

"We need to get rid of this thing fast!" Dipper said.

Spotting a tunnel ahead of them, Mabel's eyes lit up.

"Mabel's on it bro-bro", she reassured him.

Mabel opened her window as wide as it would go.

"Mabel, what are you...?!" Dipper started.

"Just keep driving!" Mabel insisted.

Dipper nodded, knowing she had a plan.

"Hey hey hey, look at me and listen to my voice!" Mabel yelled at the top of her lungs.

The creature saw its opportunity and latched onto the side of the vehicle, sticking its head through the window. It started snapping its mandibles mere inches away from Mabel.

"Mabel!" Dipper cried urgently, about to leap over to her aid when they suddenly drove into the tunnel. The Mothrilla collided with the tunnel wall, and since it had its head stuck inside the RV, it resulted in a very loud snapping noise and the RV being brought to a sudden, screeching halt. For a moment, all Dipper could do was sit in shocked silence, still taking in everything that had happened. Slowly, he pieced it together. The Mothrilla was incredibly still, its head drooping. Its neck had broken, and it was either dead or dying. Mabel looked very upset at this.

"I'm sorry, we had no other choice", she said, a few tears pricking the corners of her eyes. She petted the Mothrilla's head, ignoring the black mucus that was pouring from its mouth into her lap. Dipper instantly filled with sympathy for his sister.

"Hey, hey, it's alright", he said, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder and giving her a warm smile.

She smiled back a little, her eyes still watery. And it was then, as the adrenaline died down, that Dipper noticed something.

"Oh my gosh, you're bleeding!" he yelped.

"Wuh?" she said, confused.

She placed a hand on her forehead, and sure enough a steady trickle of blood was pouring down her forehead.

"Oh man, guess I must have hit my head when we crashed just now. Owwww", she added as the pain started to kick in.

"Oh shit, it's really bad", Dipper gasped. "Hang on, just gimme a sec".

He reversed the vehicle out of the tunnel, letting the Mothrilla's body, no longer wedged in place, fall to the ground. He pulled to the side of the road, and immediately set to work getting the first aid kit.

"Dipper, it's okay, it's not that big a deal", Mabel said, trying to calm down her brother's anxious fervour even as she saw thick droplets of blood fall from her forehead to the floor.

Dipper ignored her, pulling the first aid kit out of its cabinet and opening it. He gently took Mabel's hand and guided her over to the RV's table, sitting her at one of the booth's two small benches. She could have done that on her own of course, but the both of them became very coddling when their twin was hurt, and they had both learned to accept that long ago. It was actually pretty nice to have someone who loves you patch you up and take care of you.

Despite the strong ache working its way through her head, Mabel still couldn't help but smile a little as she watched Dipper wet a couple of cloths. Bringing it back over, he placed one on her forehead and started mopping up the blood.

"I'm so sorry", Dipper said.

"For what?" Mabel asked.

"I should have been more careful, I..."

"Don't be silly", Mabel says, lightly tapping Dipper's cheek with her fist. "It was my idea, the whole point was for that to happen".

"Still, I... I should have..."

"Nope, no guilt. Only first aiding now".

Dipper let out a weak chuckle.

"Right, right, of course", he said.

He finished mopping up the blood, then placed the second cloth over the cut, holding it firmly in place to stem the bleeding.

"How you holding up?" Dipper said.

"I'm fine. Headache and all that jazz, but other than that, I think I'm feeling okay".

"You're not concussed or anything? No fractured bone?"

Mabel rolled her eyes affectionately at Dipper's fretting.

"No, goofus, it's just a little head wound, I'll be fine".

"Good", Dipper said. "Sorry, just... needed the reassurance was all".

"I know".

He held the cloth in place for a few minutes before he removed it. Once he was confident that the bleeding had stopped, Dipper grabbed a towel and dried her forehead off. He grabbed a disinfectant wipe from the first aid box and rubbed it into the wound.

Mabel hissed as the disinfect stung her. Dipper winced apologetically.

"Sorry", he muttered.

"Nah, you gotta do what you gotta do", she reassured.

Last but not least, Dipper pulled a bandaid out of the box, a sparkly pink one to befit his sister's tastes. After peeling it off its wrapper, he very slowly, carefully placed the bandaid over the cut, running his palm across it a couple times to make sure it was properly stuck on.

"Alright, there", he said, standing up from his crouching position and letting out a sigh of relief. "Patched up".

"Thanks, Dip", Mabel said.

"No problem, sis".

Dipper turned around to dispose of the disinfectant wipe and put the cloths into a small laundry basket, but before he could do either of those things, he heard Mabel loudly clear her throat. He turned around to see her with a steely look on her face and her arms crossed.

"What?" he asked, baffled.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" she chided.

"Um... no? I don't think so?" Dipper said, frowning in confusion.

Mabel took her index finger and repeatedly tapped the bandaid. Dipper finally got the message, and now it was his turn to roll his eyes affectionately. He didn't object to the request however, leaning in and kissing her forehead directly on the bandaid. Mabel grinned broadly.

"Makes it heal twice as fast, bro", she chirped.

"Whatever you say, twenty-four year old woman", Dipper deadpanned with no real feeling as he went back to his task.

"Hey, four or twenty-four, kissing it better always works", Mabel said, her toothy grin as big as ever.


End file.
